1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an ink tank for use in an inkjet printer configured to perform recording by discharging ink or the like onto a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among the ink tanks used in inkjet printers, there is known a replacement type ink tank, which is detachably attachable to a carriage equipped with a recording head.
Among the replacement type ink tanks, there is known a complex-type ink tank having the inner space thereof divided by a partition wall into an absorber storage chamber storing an ink absorber and an ink storage chamber directly storing ink. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-105621 discusses such a complex-type ink tank.
The construction of the conventional ink tank discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-105621 will be briefly described.
The ink tank discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-105621 has a rectangular parallelepiped casing and, as illustrated in the sectional view of FIG. 12, is further equipped with an absorber storage chamber A1 and an ink storage chamber A2 adjacent to the absorber storage chamber A1. On top of the absorber storage chamber A1, there is provided an atmosphere communicating port A5, and, in the lower portion of the absorber storage chamber A1, there is provided a supply port A6 for supplying ink to a recording head. The absorber storage chamber A1 and the ink storage chamber A2 are divided from each other by a partition wall A3, and the absorber storage chamber A1 and the ink storage chamber A2 communicate with each other via a communicating portion A4 formed near the bottom portion of the partition wall A3. Further, inside the absorber storage chamber A1 discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-105621, there are stored two absorbers of an lower-layer absorber A12 and an upper-layer absorber A11 so as to be superimposed one upon the other in the height direction when the ink tank is in the attitude of use.
In the complex-type ink tank as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-105621, even in the state in which no ink can be supplied from the ink supply port (the used-up state of the ink tank), a part of residual ink remains unused near the bottom surface of the absorber storage chamber, which is likely to result in a reduction in the ink utilization ratio of the ink tank. On the other hand, in such a conventional complex-type ink tank, sufficient examination cannot be said to have been made regarding the residual ink amount in the used-up state, leaving room for an improvement in terms of the ink utilization ratio of the ink tank.